A Total Embrace: The Anniversaries of Leonard Bernstein

BERNSTEIN 27 Anniversaries for Piano
performed by Chetham’s pianists
Film screening: A Total Embrace (2005)

What makes music dance? Nina Bernstein Simmons explores the answer to that question in an evening rejoicing in her father’s unique music. The first half draws together Bernstein’s complete collection of ‘Anniversaries’, each of 27 miniatures written as a tribute to a different figure in the composer’s life, from Stephen Sondheim to Aaron Copland. After the interval, Nina introduces a rare screening of the intimate and revelatory 2005 film A Total Embrace, paying tribute to Bernstein’s life and music.